In the last episode, Arino was re-introduced to the romance genre with Roommania #203, a life simulator for the Sega Dreamcast. Arino was very familiar with the game, but one scenario had escaped him - the romance scenario.

Arino armed himself with the game's strategy guide and worked through the scenario. However, at the end of the scenario, he was only able to read part of the text for the ending and thought he had lost the challenge. However, that text was documenting the past, and the rest of the text revealed the happy ending!

Poor Arino, he never wins when it comes to romance.

This week, we're introduced to a brand new segment of the show - the collections! At the beginning of the episode, the fansub providers were kind enough to leave in the second portion of the Hudson Collection, and in the next season this segment becomes a mainstay.

Arino's challenge this week is a game published by Hudson, known as Star Force. Shmup fans will immediately recognize this title, as it almost singlehandedly brought the genre to the forefront in Japan.

Win Condition: Earn the 50k bonus for defeating Rarios before it forms.

Bonus: A legendary video game idol is introduced on the show! Guess which video game character is modeled after him?

I guess I'm not a real shmup fan then... just another poser-wannabe... *sob*

Though the game title does make me nostalgic for one of Japan's greatest exports: Space Battleship Yamato. In the North American edit, aka Star Blazers, the Yamato crew were referred to as the Star Force. For a moment there, I thought it was a video game based on SBY.

Speakin' of which: does anyone know if they ever put out a Space Battleship Yamato video game?

Anyhoo: I've watched later episodes of GameCenter CX, and a few of them bring up Arino's poor shmup skills. So even though I haven't yet watched episode 5 as of this writing, I'm ashamed to admit I'm not optimistic of the man's chances.

The guest star is Takahashi Meijin, the star of Takahashi Meijin no Boukenjima, known as Hudson's Adventure Island (he's Master Higgins!). He's a former executive of Hudson's that became well known for his rapid fire ability in Star Force and Star Soldier.

I was totally blown away when he whipped that out. Who would have even thought of making such a thing? Then I remembered that this is Japan we're talkin' about here, where games are truly serious business. Fortunately, Arino shows us that even serious business can be pretty fun...

That is really cool that they got Meijin to come in to help. I remember reading about him a long time ago and his famous 16 shots. Quite a celebrity of sorts for this accomplishment.

For those that want to try the number of shots in 10 seconds function of the Hudson controller, the Bandai MEGA controller released in the US has the same function. I haven't measured mine in quite a while, so I might have to break it out.

I know it has nothing to do with the topic, sorry about that,but i would like to know why i was banned from using the forum? Nobody told me anything and i have no clue about what i've done to deserve it.

Hilarious. Especially how serious they are about it, and all the sound effects (when Maijin rubs his head...) make it even more funny.

Login or register to comment

It appears as though you are not a member of our site, or are not logged in.

It appears as though you can not comment currently. Becoming able to comment though is easy! All you need to do is register for the site! Not only will you be able to access any other site features including the forum and collection tools. If you are a registered user and just need to login then you can do so here.

Comment! It's easy, thoughtful, and who knows you might just enjoy it!